The invention relates to harvesting equipment for harvesting corn or similar stalked plants. Such harvesting equipment, designed especially as a front-end apparatus for a mobile processing apparatus, such as a chopper, serves for gathering, cutting off and transferring corn plants, for example, to the further processing apparatus. In DE 33 24 899 C2, a machine is disclosed for harvesting stalked plants, in which the plants are gathered by a front-end cutting machine, cut off and fed to a chopper. The gathering and cutting apparatus has a chain system circulating across the line of travel. The chain system consists of two conventional endless long-link roller chains whose holding fingers are associated with anvils and with stationary knives cooperating with counter-knives for cutting off and carrying the stalked corn plants. The chains have tongues above and below them, between which are open spaces defined by vertical pins. The stationary knives mounted underneath the chain system, and the knife holders corresponding thereto form a planar slide surface to guide the chain system. In order to achieve reliable guidance of the cornstalks after they are cut off, holding fingers and anvils are provided so that the cornstalks can be fed to the chopper by simultaneous contact with the holding fingers and the anvil in a position slightly inclined from the perpendicular. Not until the cornstalks are near the point where the chain movement reverses are they released by the fact that, due to the turning of the upper and lower long-link roller chain about sprockets positioned on different axes, the release of the holding action produced by holding fingers and anvils is brought about. A principal shortcoming of the conveying and cutting system described above is that, under the conditions of operation prevailing in its use (contact with earth, water and plant remnants), sufficient resistance to wear, especially of the long-link roller chains, cannot be achieved. The chains jam and lose their carrying ability. Replacement of individual chain links is also quite complicated due to the great number of parts.